The local project "Nature-The Soul of the Earth" 2025

Inspiring Young Voices through Creative Writing

As part of Romania’s Săptămâna Verde (Green Week) National Programme, held between May 5th and 9th, 2025, the local project “Natura - Sufletul Pământului/Nature - The Soul of the Earth” brought nature to life through the eyes and words of third-grade pupils. The project facilitated two engaging creative writing workshops - Plant a Story (individual) and The Future in Our Eyes (collaborative) - designed to help children explore environmental themes through storytelling.

Taking into consideration the fact that one of the project aims was to cultivate environmental awareness through creativity among the primary and lower-secondary pupils enrolled at Liceul Teoretic "Radu Vlădescu", at the heart of the project was a simple, but powerful idea: storytelling can connect children with nature in a deeply personal way. 

The creative writing workshop Plant a Story invited each pupil to craft an individual tale inspired by the natural world. Through metaphor, imagination, and emotion, the learners "planted" their stories like seeds - weaving tales of trees that talk, animals who protect their habitats, and imaginary worlds where humans live in harmony with the earth.

Meanwhile, The Future in Our Eyes encouraged pairwork, empathy, and a shared vision. In this collaborative workshop, the pupils worked together to share a story imagining what the world might look like in 50 years if we choose to care for the environment and/or if we don't. The result was a hopeful, but realistic reflection on environmental responsibility, expressed in the sincere, unfiltered voices of young children.

The activities had both an educational and an emotional impact and the benefits of these workshops were far-reaching:

- they enhanced environmental literacy (the children learned about ecosystems, pollution, and sustainability in a context that felt personal and meaningful);

- they improved literacy and communication skills; by writing and presenting their stories in front of their peers, the pupils developed narrative skills, their English vocabulary, and public speaking confidence;

- they strengthened the young learners' emotional intelligence: the workshops gave our pupils the space to express their feelings about nature, pollution, climate change, and their hopes for the future;

- they fostered pairwork and collaboration; during the second workshop, The Future in Our Eyes, the pupils learned to listen, to compromise and to collaborate in order to build something greater together.

The local initiative "Nature - The Soul of the Earth" proved that even the youngest voices can speak with power when given the right platform. By blending environmental education with artistic expression, this project left a lasting impression, not only in the words written, but in the minds and hearts of those who wrote them.

As the entire school community reflects on the success of this year's Green Week, this local project stands as a good example of how creativity and care for the planet can grow hand in hand. Since all the project participants expressed a renewed commitment to protecting the environment, the project coordinators believe that creative writing can spark real-world awareness and change.